Thomas KirtleyThomas Kirtley was born in Tanfield in 1810 and died from a brain
tumour in Brighton on 16 November 1847 where he was locomotive
superintendent (Marshall). he had
previously been locomotive superintendent of the North Midland Railway, founder
of a locomotive building firm
in Warrington and an engine driver on the Liverpool & Manchester
Railway with his brother Matthew.

Matthew KirtleyMatthew Kirtley was born at Tanfield in County Durham on 6 February
1813, the son of a colliery viewer. After a brief spell of tailoring, he
joined the S&DR as a fireman in 1826, joined the L&MR briefly and
became a driver on the Hull & Selby from where he was dismissed.
Nevertheless, he is reputed to have driven the first L&BR train into
London. In 1839 he was appointed Locomotive Foreman at Hampton on the Birmingham
& Derby Junction Railway, and two years later was made Locomotive
Superintendent. Following the formation of the MR by amalgamation Kirtley
becames its Locomotive Superintendent, probably through the influence of
the Stephensons.Hunt: Backtrack, 17,
191As first locomotive superintendent of the recently-formed Midland
Railway, Matthew Kirtley's first task was to enlarge, improve, and standardize
the ninety-odd locomotive stock handed down by the three constituent companies,
while at the same time enlarging the facilities at Derby to enable the Company
to become less dependent on outside enterprises both for the repair and the
maintenance of its locomotives. His first locomotives followed previous patterns;
for example, his first passenger machines were basically of the Jenny
Lind type, but later in his career he built very sound locomotives of
his own design; among these were his long lived 2-4-0 machines of the 800
class, and his double-framed 0-6-0, some of which survived until railway
nationalization. In 1856, with C. Markham, Kirtley
devised a firebox suitable for burning coal; this used the inclined brick-arch,
later so well-known, with a deflector plate sloping downwards from the firedoor.
By this means volatile matter escaping with the hot gases was combusted as
it moved around the brick arch and mixed with air entering by the firedoor.
Kirtley held office from 1844 to his death on 24 May 1873. Previously he
had been locomotive superintendent of the Birmingham & Derby Junction
Railway, one of the constituents of the Midland. His brother Thomas Kirtley,
who became locomotive superintendent of the LBSCR for a few months in 1847,
was the last locomotive superintendent of another Midland constituent, the
North Midland. There is a Matthew Kirtley Scholarship for the University
of Manchester's School of Engineering: Sir Frederic Calland Williams won
this in 1929. Obituary: Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1874, 25,
16-..

Contributions to other's papersSiemens, C. William. On Le
Chatelier's plan of using counter-pressure steam as a break [sic] in locomotive
engines. Proc. Instn Mech Engrs., 1870, 21, 21-36. Disc.: 47-9
+ Plates 1-5.A preliminary trial of the counter-pressure plan had been made a "short
time ago" with a light tank engine on the Midland Railway, and they had been
"much surprised" at the results: in consequence a larger tank engine had
been fitted with the counter-pressure apparatus, and trials had been made
on the Lickey incline of 1 in 37. The engine was a very heavy one, intended
expressly for working that incline, its weight in working order being 36½
tons; it was a six-wheel coupled engine, with 4 feet wheels, and cylinders
16½ inches diameter by 24 inches stroke. Several experiments were made,
the last of which may be regarded as a destructive test where the packings
were burnt and one cylinder got "rather hot". On the previous experiment
a train of six loaded coal wagons weighing 58.61 tons, and two incline brake
wagons weighing 21.20 tons and at 16 miles/hour the water cock was opened
nearly half a turn and kept open for 5 seconds; the speed was thereby reduced
in ¾mile to about 3 miles/hour. Again at 20 miles/hour the water cock
was opened a quarter turn for 6 or 8 seconds, which reduced the speed in
about ¾ mile to a mere crawl. No water issued from the chimney
top.

William KirtleyNephew of Matthew Kirtley of the Midland Railway.
Marshall states that he was born in
Warrington on 14 October 1849 and died in London on 7 October 1919. His father
had owned a locomotive manufacturing business in Warrington, but this had
failed prior to William's birth. William was a pupil at Derby under his uncle,
from April 1854. He held several posts on the Midland, including that of
foreman at the Midland depot in King's Cross and from January 1864 Workshops
Superintendent at Derby until he was appointed Locomotive Carriage &
Wagon Superintendent on the LCDR in succession to
Martley. Bradley records that at the Board Meeting
on 12 March 1874 four candidates had been considered: two (Appleby and Lindsley
were rejected as lacking experience - the other was Sacré), and Kirtley
was offered the post at £800 per annum. He designed a powerful 0-4-4T
(R class) which Bradley considered to be the best suburban tank engines South
of London. This very thorough engineer was a consultant to the Hull &
Barnsley Railway between 1883 and 1885..